1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to military weapons and particularly to apparatus for simulating the sound and flash thereof. More particularly, the present invention may be described as an electronically controlled pyrotechnic sound and flash simulator for use with small arms training.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the armed forces have placed an increasing emphasis on the realism of battlefield training conditions. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,919 entitled "Small Weapons Noise Simulator," which issued June 3, 1958 to Edwin R. DuBois, there is shown an electro-mechanical small weapons noise simulator which can be attached to a weapon.
Currently with regard to the standard M16 automatic weapon, the armed forces use blanks and a blank fire adapter. The sound levels produced by this method are far below that of live round fire. Inasmuch as each M16 blank is estimated to cost at least 8.5 cents, training with such is quite expensive.